A Smart, Laugh Out Loud Debut Novel About A Deeply Flawed But Endearing Stay At Home Mom, A Book For Anyone Who Took Bridget Jones To Heart A Decade Ago And Now Has Kids Lucy Sweeney Has Three Sons, A Husband On A Short Fuse, And A Tendency Toward Domestic Disaster It Has Been Years Since The Dirty Laundry Pile Was Less Than Three Feet High, Months Since She Remembered To Have Sex, And Weeks Since Her Toddler Started Using The Trash Can As A Toilet Lucy Is Living In A Constant State Of Emergency, Caught Between Perfectionist Yummy Mummy No And Competitive Alpha Mum, Making It Hard For Her To Remember Exactly Why She Exchanged Her Career And Sanity For Less Than Blissful Domesticity When She Begins A Flirtation With Sexy Domesticated Dad, A Father From The School Car Pool Lane, The String Of White Lies To Cover Up The Trail Of Chaos And Illicit Desire Starts To Unravel And Disaster Looms Slummy Mummy The Secret Life Of Lucy Sweeney Is A Hilarious Novel About The Dilemmas Of Modern Marriage And Motherhood For Those Who Never Discovered Their Inner Domestic Goddess Pitch Perfect And Satisfyingly Smart, It Does For The Stay At Home Mother What Allison Pearson S Blockbuster Bestseller I Don T Know How She Does It Did For The Working Mom It Offers A Lovable, Flawed Character Who Resonates, Entertains, And Undoubtedly Has It Worse Than You Do

10 thoughts on “Slummy Mummy”

My takeaway Marriage is boring and pointless but it sure does make for some great sex with other people Also, parenting is hard so just don t do it I mean, sure, have kids but just don t bother with the parenting part.Talk about an alienating read The only similarity I share with the main character is that I am a married white woman and even I felt offended on behalf of affluent British mothers everywhere And once I was done being offended, I was bored This book seems to be reinforcing negative stereotypes of stay at home mothers I know a lot of people ask, What do they do all day and after reading this, those people will feel justified in smugly knowing that home makers do nothing, as illustrated by the mothers in this story Except for Alpha Mom who is an overbearing, obnoxious, unsympathetic, success oriented freak of nature thereby showing that mothers who over parent and adhere to structure are worse than the devil and nobody likes them Nobody Also, they re closeted coke addicts.Seriously, though, what does Lucy Sweeney, the slummy mummy, do all day She laments how hard motherhood is and lists out her typical routine once or twice but she s hardly reliable so you have to take it all with a grain of salt and wonder how much of her day is in her imagination and how much she actually accomplishes and why motherhood is so difficult for her, in particular This would have been a good moment to embark on a rudimentary chat about the birds and the bees but I just didn t have time, she says How How can you not have time You re ironing your jeans JEANS The whole point of jeans is to throw them on and not care They don t need to be ironed and if you have time to do that, you have time to explain basic sex to your three year old who wants a pet sperm And you could have run a load of laundry in that time, too Good lord, woman Dude, motherhood is hard so don t downplay it by showing the amusing silliness of an always messy car complete with escaped hamster No, it s not a Kia , the whimsical nature of frazzled mothers who forget they have kids in said car while trying to save face after running out of gasoline three blocks from the house as opposed to the neurotic mother who has a chart of activities for the entire year pasted to the living room wall, or by writing off parents who hire people to raise their children while they, the parents, enjoy a life of exercise, manicures, and pubic waxing These scenarios might be a cutesy way to make mothers feel better about what they perceive as their own parenting shortcomings but put together as a whole in this ridiculous package, it just reinforces the stupid stereotypes that stay at home mothers are dithering idiots, holier than thou mommy warriors, or money hungry social climbers But, again, I m not a mom and maybe these tales of can t get it doneness vs overdone ness vs hands free doneness really are a panacea to the overworked, tired, always questioning stay at home parent Maybe moms read this and feel better about not having a clean house while simultaneously being smug over how wrong in control moms and moms who have hired staff are.Oh, right Hired staff So everyone in this story has enough money for au pairs and nannies and house cleaners and laundry service and the like Is that real life in England Can the average middle class family really afford help If I could afford a housecleaner, even just once a month, I d have one in in a hot second Domestic assistance must be much affordable for a single income three child family in London than it is for a dual income zero child family in the middle of Colorado So, then, how is it that Lucy, who only has the luxury of an aged house cleaner who won t do the laundry and then, later, a laundry service, is still behind in domestic chores if she can afford help Again, what the hell does she do all day while her kids are in school To me, it seemed like the crux of this tale was that extramarital affairs are de rigueur and apparently a good idea, to boot That s actually the whole point of being married, so you can enjoy infidelity Ok, yes, I know, this is supposed to be a light and amusing glimpse into how and why adultery happens within the confines of a contented marriage and the potential consequences thereafter I get that a bored stay at home mom would be enticed by an attentive though completely less than charming stay at home dad and flirting would happen and the daydreams, etc but would it really become such a drawn out chase full of overblown tension and self recrimination but no obvious moments of real responsibility taking place Maybe stay at home parents have a lot time, energy, and ability to have wild flings they must, as they obviously do nothing else all day long all you stay at home parents had better be having torrid affairs with each other or else this book has lied to me and maybe it s true that all men want to stray from their wives as I think all the men in this story have done at some point, butok, no, I didn t believe any of that Not a word Granted, I don t know about these things, this isn t how my life runs However, I do know hypocrisy, having engaged in it a time or two, myself, and this story is just rife with the stuff Everyone is justifying having sex outside of marriage and even if they admit it s not ok, in general there s a valid reason these people are doing it and lying and creating drama but boy howdy, they all become so judgey when other people have affairs or, worse, when they suspect their own partners of having affairs and then they start lecturing and pontificating and I m puking so I need to move on So I guess my problem was less with all the screwing around outside the marriage chamber and with the hypocrisy that went along with it Own up, people, otherwise, shut up.You ll be surprised to note, I am sure, that women are helpless, hapless morons subject to the whims and vagaries of their male counterparts Lucy left her journalism career to become a SHM and is passively engaged in letting her rather assholey colleague in parenting chase her and paw at her and clumsily pseudo seduce her, Lucy s college friend and former sister in law is getting over her divorce by letting her new boyfriend and his roommate share her she goes along with it because why not The problem here is this was not her decision, it was theirs until she s too tired of sex and wants to go back to a one man relationship, the other college friend, Emma, is putting her own pretty spiffy life on hold for a married man, the married man s wife is finding fulfillment in material objects and maybe her trainer as any trophy wife would, Lucy s mother in law leaves her life to start another at the request of a manall nicely, tritely showing that liberated women who are trying to define their lives as they see fit still make most of their decisions based on what the men around them want Also, married women cannot successfully have affairs because they can t compartmentalize and their inability to lie would give it all awaysays Lucy and her friends Affairs are only for single women and all the men, people Take note.Just what makes Lucy so engaging to the sexy stay at home dad, Yummy Mummy 1, Celebrity Dad, the former fling, her two BFFs, and everyone else who adores her I don t get her popularity I thought she was irritating with her self proclaimed awareness and empathy for others while, in truth, being ridiculously self involved, busily justifying all her mistakes and failings as something other than mistakes and failings Nothing is ever her fault and she ll lie her way out of any situation or, at least, spin it to her benefit It s not that she is confident in herself like Yummy Mummy 1 the only character I liked because she was the only one who seemed to face everything honestly and with mostly clear sight , she just wants to be liked too badly by everyone, including herself, so much so that she ll sweep any potential detractors under the rug Of course, everyone else was horrid, as wellI guess miserable people like other miserable people and Lucy was the best liked because she was the most awful I am fairly sure this is supposed to be a tale of hilarious mishaps via a ditzy but delightful modern mommy, probably what Mad About the Boy was also supposed to be And like Bridget Jones 3, which may have actually been the impetus behind this story I am pretending the author was all, What ever happened to our good friend, BJ Oh, hey, I should write a novel about a crazy but lovable dingbat who can t get her shit together but manages to hold down a household and marriage and friends and an emotional affair but only by the skin of her teeth and an enormous dose of good luck Hoorah , it missed the mark because instead of being engaging and droll, this tale of loathsome characters in silly situations is actually really boring If I wanted that, I d watch Jersey Shore or something Is that even still a show And that ending in which everyone has all the realizations and learns all the lessons Most over the top, eye rolling, puke worthy finale ever.On the other hand, the reader is good and aside from the constant repetition and the inability to stick to the linear timeline, it s not too badly written so I can t take away all the stars Just most of them.

I couldn t get through this book Because I am a stay at home mom I thought I would identify with this book, but no The entire plot line about the mom wanting, dreaming and justifying having an affair left me cold I understand that staying with your kids might not be the most exciting thing to be doing, but having an affair with someone is not how I choose to add excitement to my life and I definitely don t want to spend my the few minute I have to myself reading about someone who does But then maybe I m just lucky because I love my husband.

A very funny and entertaining read Has you laughing out load at times and is very realistic with things such as the competitiveness of other parents, even in doing their child s homework so it gets a good mark Quite well written, only downside, didn t really like the plot line at the end with the hotel ect, didn t think the MC would actually do that All in all a good book and fun to read

An easy read that s like an old friend comforting and entertaining.We all know someone who is or will be a Yummy Mummy or an Alpha Mum or a Slummy Mummy or a Sexy Domesticated Dad We all have that friend who will be in one relationship after another and never settles down.Perhaps this book would appeal to a middle class audience I cannot relate to the lifestyles at all But to the situations and the characters I think fondly of them.

My neighbor gave me this book and told me it was really funny and my first thought was that she doesn t know me at all This type of book really doesn t interest me, but after reading the back with an endorsement from Anna Wintour of all people I figured it might be a quick, entertaining read I brought it on a road trip and with nothing else to do, I started reading it The whole time I was complaining to my husband about how awful it was I didn t think it was funny at all, mostly because the scenarios that were meant to be amusing all centered on the painful embarrassment of the main character, and all situations brought about by her own laziness, sloppiness, or irresponsibility, all of which just bugged me Either that, or they completely rang false to me Seriously, most of this stuff would never happen Plus I found it really false how many coincidences this woman stumbles into, especially that at every single school function the only seat available is between the same two people Seriously All that said, I did read this book to the end I didn t think I would be able to, but actually I found myself very curious about how her temptation toward adultery would play out A lot of people seem really bothered by the inclusion of that story line in the book, but actually I felt like it was pretty realistic No marriage is perfect, and I think a lot of people have a moment of wondering whether the grass is greener with someone else Her inner turmoil about the attraction and how to handle it felt pretty realistic to me All the other stuff about being such a monumentally poor homemaker seemed over the top Without the potential infidelity storyline the book would have been a total zero.The ending was just ridiculous Not only did it rely on an absurd number of coincidences happening all at once, but it was just stupid, would never happen, and made an otherwise unremarkable book even worse.

This made a perfect summer holiday read, light and amusing with a serious undercurrent, and I identified strongly with the main character, Lucy Sweeney, a frustrated stay at home mum of three young children, mothers like me, the slummy mummies, the muddlers and befuddlers, the ones who don t know what to do when a spare minute comes their way because it is so rare, wearing old dresses that have stretched with us over the years Many of her amusing antics and slatternly behaviour could have been mine a few years ago, although the flirtation with Sexy Domesticated Dad would not have been one of them, and I wouldn t have put the school wastepaper basket in my handbag, either I m sure the teacher would have understood.Below the humorous surface, there are many serious comments about the role of women today Did the feminists of the 1970s throw away their daughters and granddaughters right to have the choice to work at home as mothers as they are under pressure to work outside the home, and what is the cost of this Why is bringing up children accorded so little status in modern society, and often delegated to nannies and au pairs or childcare services Side note of my own is it socially acceptable to work in childcare for other people than it is to look after your own children If so, why Conversation stopper I m a stay at home mum Fiona Neill makes a good point about the Yummy Mummy sort who let others take care of the messy domestic side of life, allowing them time to shop, exercise and have beauty treatments She notes that this is the modern day equivalent of the 1950 s ideal housewife, without the work involved.Quotations I noted Even though this is the first time that I have been out for almost a month, I still reproach myself Guilt is the bindweed of motherhood, the two are so inexorably entwined that it is difficult to know where one ends and the other begins There is no level playing field in the domestic point scoring game Women always start in the foothills, with higher to climb and further to fall A man who changes a nappy bounds ahead, while a woman who performs the same task in half the time, using three economic movements and a quarter of the wipes, barely registers progress Tom doesn t spend enough time at home to realise that children are like ants without a system, constantly on the move, carrying things from one room to another and secreting them in places invisible to the adult eye Oh yes Only to be discovered months or years later the essential part of some toy or apparatus, the part without which it won t work Or the key to a box containing the indispensable bit Or a piece of food which will be covered in mould by the time you retrieve it Been there, done that.Fortunately, a reassuring note from Lucy s psychologist brother for those of us who are not always perfect mothers and housewives better to veer on the side of chaos than be too controlling Behind an anxious child there often lurks a neurotic parent Being a good mother depends on defining the right dose of devotion Too little and the child wilts, too much and it is stifled A sigh of relief, and vindication of my own style of parenting First reviewed here

I kind of hate to put 4 stars on such a light and silly book but I really did like it and found it to be much clever than I had thought that it would be Hailed a The Bridget Jones of Motherhood I expected the silly and exaggerated circumstances of being stay at home mom, however there was a lot of wisdom too I found myself saying, yeah, yeah, I do that too or oh yes I have totally thought that too Lucy gets herself into situations that we all havetaking the kids to school in her pajamaslosing her keys and getting locked IN washing the kids hair with baby powderBut then there are some deeper and thought provoking situations she gets into as wellHaving a crush on another parentReliving her single days too often in her headRunning into old boyfriendsWeighing what to tell her husband and what not toThis light hearted ridiculous novel about being a mother really had some depth I recommend it to any parent, especially ones that have days when they wonder how they got into this mess

I found it quite hard to rate this book On the one hand it was trashy, unbelievable and most of the characters, especially the main one, were totally unlikable On the other hand there were several moments that had me laughing out loud and it was a quick, fun and easy read As a stay at home Mummy myself I found I was able to relate to some of Lucy Sweeney s emotions but definitely not her actions as they seemed cruel and cold rather than comedic.

Brilliant, smart and funnyYou would never expect a piece of mom lit to turn out as a sophisticated essay about marriage and motherhood Slummy Mummy comes quite as a surprise, being not only smart, witty and extremely funny, but the most important of all, giving astonishingly precise account of a woman in her midlife crisis As the heroine s pedantic husband put it, the midlife crisis is discontent with the status quo, restlessness, questioning decisions that you made years ago, thinking you ve grown apart from your husband, wondering whether happiness lies with another man And Lucy Sweeney makes a long way from fantasizing about another man to making a decision about the future of her marriage The book is not dedicated exclusively to adultery Ms.Neill provides amazing observations about the nature of being a mother, about the responsibilities, difficulties and rewards of motherhood Lucy s life is a nightmare of sleepless nights, chronic fatigue and endless flow of domestic routine, and yet there s a rare sparkle of such overwhelming feeling that may only be felt towards a child I feel time passing like sand slipping through my fingers Perhaps it is good that we remember only fragments of their childhood as we grow older Otherwise, the loss would be too great to bear Lucy s fears, worries, anxiety, loneliness and exhaustion are not her own It all sounds so utterly familiar, as if someone overheard your own thoughts and shared your own experience And yet, the Slummy Mummy does not hold a tiny bit of depression As if Lucy Sweeney pondered on one of the big sized dilemmas of her life To laugh or to cry and finally voted for the former.